A tale of two clippers
It could be fortuitous that the Clyde-built Cutty Sark went up in flames the week before The Carrick, the world's only other surviving tea clipper, is due to be consigned to oblivion. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of these two ships to Britain's maritime heritage. Like thoroughbred race horses, they were built for speed at a time when fortunes were to be made from reaching London with the first tea of the season out of Shanghai. Under full sail, they were not only a beautiful sight but for a brief period they were able to outpace the new generation of steamships. We will never see their like again and it would be tragic if 2007 saw the demise of them both.
In recent years their fortunes have contrasted sharply. While Cutty Sark embarked last year on a £25m renovation project, The Carrick has continued to deteriorate at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, after a £5m rescue plan failed to attract sufficient backing. It is a vivid illustration of the extent to which the estate agent's catchphrase, "Location, location, location", applies to British industrial and maritime heritage. It is almost inconceivable that The Carrick would have suffered this fate in the Solent or on the Thames. Scotland's preoccupation with fine art at the expense of its own industrial heritage is such that it would be easier to raise £5m for a Turner painting of The Carrick than the ship herself.
The current sad situation cannot be laid at the door of the Scottish Maritime Museum, whose trustees have strained every sinew to save the ship, having salvaged her from the bottom of the Clyde. Though built in Sunderland, The Carrick became a well-loved Glasgow landmark, as a base for the RNVR, and would make a fitting focus for the city's planned new riverside transport museum.The cruel fate of the Cutty Sark is a poignant reminder of what we are on the brink of losing forever. At the very least, there is surely a compelling argument for delaying the final decision to dismantle The Carrick - due next Tuesday - until a thorough survey can be made of what remains of the Cutty Sark to assess the chances of restoring that much-loved old lady. Meanwhile, Historic Scotland should bear the ongoing costs of The Carrick, which currently threaten to sink the poorly-supported maritime museum.
France, having realised its error in scrapping its historic ships, is now busy building replicas. We do not need to. Not yet. But, as Oscar Wilde might have put it: to lose one historic tea clipper may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
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